One new Crossville city council candidate has taken out nominating papers for the November city election.
Longtime local businessman Glenn McDonald picked up papers to run but has not returned them yet. McDonald is a real estate broker for First Realty in Crossville as well as an auctioneer.
Glenn McDonald
Previous candidates that have qualified for the council race include Rob Harrison and Art Gernt. In addition, incumbent Mayor James Mayberry has qualified to run for Mayor. The mayor and council positions are voted for separately.
Currently, the city election in November will include the office of Mayor and two seats on the city council. Based on discussion at the work session June 5 it looks unlikely that the council will be expanded with two additional council members this year.
The resolution to expand the council to 7 members (Mayor and 6 council members) has been approved by the Tennessee General Assembly and returned to the council for final approval. The matter would have to pass with a supermajority by a 4 to 1 vote and two council members indicated during the work session that they would only support the change if it was voted on by the public in a referendum. The initial request to have the change sent to the State Legislature only passed with a 3 to 2 vote. Council members Graham and Wyatt opposed the matter when the vote was taken to send the request to the State Legislature. During the work session, Mr. Wyatt and Mayor Mayberry said the matter should be voted on by citizens of Crossville.
The proposal was brought to the council in January this year by council member Pamala Harris who said she felt the change could give the council a different dynamic. Harris added that it could give more people a chance to be represented as well as giving more women a chance to serve on the council.
The Crossville/ Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce has been involved in the Crossville city council election race. They invited each candidate to a private briefing about the chamber with volunteers and staff, sponsored the council candidate forum held at the Playhouse (link to videos) and sent a survey to all the candidates requesting answers to a series of questions, some in reference to future chamber funding by the city council.
Chamber sponsored candidate forum at the Playhouse
The candidate questionnaires were sent to all members of the chamber and answers can beviewed at this link.
Early voting is now underway and you can find sample ballots here.
Early voting gets underway for Cumberland County voters at the Election Commission office in the Milo Lemert building across from the courthouse Wednesday October 19. The office is open week days from 8 AM to 5 PM. During Early voting the office is also open Saturdays from 8 AM until Noon. Early voting ends November 3 and election days is Tuesday November 8.
Officials expect a large turnout for early voting.
Presidential races sample ballot
Sample ballot for local municipal races including Crossville,
Pleasant Hill and Crab Orchard.
Sample ballot for US Congress and State House races.
The forum was held at the Cumberland County Playhouse and was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.
Candidates L-R: J.H. Graham, Dave Warner, J.J. Brownstead, Jeanette Parsons, Terri Neal-Manning, Scot Shanks and Rob Harrison.
All but one of the candidates was able to attend and each candidate was given 2 minutes for an opening statement. A statement from Charles Cooper, Jr. who was unable to attend was read on his behalf.
Dave Warner
J. H. Graham
Jeanette Parsons
J. J. Brownstead
Rob Harrison
Scot Shanks
Terri Neal-Manning
Candidates discussed the position of city manager:
Economic Development was another topic of the candidates:
Council candidates were asked where they saw the city in 10 years:
And each candidates was allowed to make a closing statement:
Seven of the eight candidates for this November's City Council election have committed to attend the Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber's Candidate Forum, Tuesday night (6:00-8:00 p.m.) at the Cumberland County Playhouse. Each candidate participating will be given a two-minute introduction and permitted a two-minute closing statement.
Eight questions (listed below) were selected by the Chamber's Public Policy Council on Friday and were immediately provided to each candidate. Chamber President, Brad Allamong explained, "We did receive a number of questions from the public, but in the time available, the questions had to be condensed down to key topics that appeared in many of the public's greatest areas of concern."
The Forum format does not lend itself to a "candidate debate"; but, more of an opportunity for the candidates to present their key thoughts on how to make our community a better place.
The Moderator for the event will be John Fionte and Timekeeper, Nicole Hackmann, both from the Playhouse. The Forum will be videotaped and available on Crossville News First.
The Forum is sponsored by the Chamber as a public event for the community and residents who will vote in the upcoming November election. There is no fee and open to anyone wishing to attend.
The 8 questions are:
1) What is your plan to promote economic development in our community…bring in new business?
2) Either as permanent or interim, Crossville has had a revolving door of folks serving as City Manager. Why do you think this has been the case?
3) What would you like to see done to address the needs of youth of our community?
4) What would you do to promote cooperation between the City/County and Chamber?
5) Crossville’s Main Street is the heart of our community. What would you like to see happen to keep our central business district growing and an attractive place to visit?
6) What do you see as the role of City government in addressing our local education/workforce needs?
7) How long should someone serve on the City Council?
8) What would Crossville look like in 10 years if you were to be elected?
The regular September Crossville city
council meeting had moments of anger and shouting between some
members as discussions of the hiring of a new city manager came up on
the agenda.
In addition, apparent angry words from one council member to one candidate were caught on security video.
L-R, Council members Souza, Wyatt, Mayberry, Harris and Kerley
Councilman Pete Souza asked for the
item on the agenda and requested three minutes to speak on the
matter, saying he did not want to make a motion. Mayor James
Mayberry supported his motion to speak but councilman Jesse Kerley
immediate called a point of order saying that a motion to suspend the
rules was required as you can't just make a motion to give the floor
away.
Kerley looked to city attorney Will
Ridley who said that a motion had to be made to do something and then
speak to the motion or a motion to suspend the standing rules was
needed.
Mr. Souza argued saying, “I've set
her over and over when people have made motions and discussed stuff
with no action over and over.”
Ridley answered, “The mayor runs the
meeting and it's his call. If you want to overrule him, you're
welcome to appeal the decision.” Ridley added that to suspend the
rules requires a ¾ vote that would need 4 votes for approval.
Full discussion of city manager deadline extension
Souza then moved that the city council
not act on the appointment of a city manager until after the upcoming
city council election. Mayor Mayberry gave the second. That
elicited a point of order from Mr. Kerley saying that the previous
motion on hiring the city manager from July needed to be rescinded
again.
Mayor Mayberry said, “You all voted
out having work sessions and you said that we didn't need work
sessions because we needed transparency by doing more things at the
council meeting and here we are at a council meeting and we can't
discuss items.
After a comment by councilman Danny
Wyatt, Mr. Ridley stood to say that if Mr. Souza wanted to restate
his motion but before he could finish the statement Mr. Souza jumped
in saying, “All I want to do is talk for 3 minutes. That's all I
want. I don't even want to do a motion. It is pretty poor when the
city elects me to represent them and I'm not even allowed to speak at
a council meeting for three minutes? That's pretty ridiculous.”
Souza finally agrees to make the motion
and takes the floor. Souza discusses the petition from the
candidates for city council in the upcoming election asking that the
council put off the hiring until the new council takes offices.
Souza says if the current council hires a manager in October, they
could be removed by the new council in December at a cost of up to 6
months of salary.
When Souza is through, Mr. Wyatt says
there seems to be some confusion, “The action in July didn't say
anything about hiring a city manager by this council, just that we
were going to accept resumes for 60 days.”
Wyatt continued by making a motion to
rescind the previous action and extend the acceptance of resumes to
October 15 and those would all be forwarded to MTAS, the Municipal
Technical Advisory Service for rating and ranking to be returned to
the council by November 15. Council member Pam Harris seconded that
motion though Mr. Souza's motion remained on the floor.
Harris then addressed the controversy,
“I don't know what in the world has got this all blown out of
proportion. Lets use some common sense here, if you take resumes
until September 30 and then you turn them over to MTAS, obviously
they got to have time to rank them. The whole idea was to get the
ball rolling down the road.”
Mr. Souza thanked Mr. Wyatt and Ms.
Harris and the motion to extend the deadline to October 15 passed
unanimously.
During the time of public comment,
council candidate J. T. Brownstead got up to speak and thanked the
council for changing the timeline.
City Council Candidate J. T. Brownstead thanks council for the action on hiring city manager.
After the meeting ended, Brownstead tried
to go to each council member and thank them individually but got a
cold reception from Mr. Kerley. In the video below you can see
Kerley refuses to shake hands with Brownstead and then shakes his
finger at Brownstead making several comments. According to
Brownstead Kerley accused him of making signs for J. R. Blankenship,
something Brownstead said he had nothing to do with. Blankenship and
Kerley have made numerous accusations against each other for several months.
In addition Kerley accused Brownstead of being in the parking lot with
Blankenship but Brownstead was in the council chambers sitting with
another council candidate Terri Neal Manning instead.
Silent video of interaction between councilman Jesse Kerley and candidate J. T. Brownstead
Press Release from the Crossville Cumberland Co. Chamber of Commerce.
The
Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a City
Council Candidate Forum at the Cumberland County
Playhouse-Little Theatre on Tuesday, October 4th from
6:00-8:00 p.m. The Forum is being provided as a public service event
and anyone wishing to attend may do so.
This year’s Forum
will ask that each candidate give a 2-minute opening statement and
2-minute summary statement. Prepared questions will be provided to
the candidates in advance of the event and we will attempt to get as
many questions asked as is possible. A timekeeper and moderator will
be managing the Forum and the candidates will be limited to just 90
seconds to answer each posed question.
The public is
encouraged to submit their questions to Nancy at the Chamber office
by email: nwilson@crossville-chamber.com
UPDATE: Terri Manning has signed the petition as of the evening of 9-6-16. Seven out of 8 candidates have signed to ask the current council to delay the hiring of a new city manager.
In a unique action, most of the
8 Crossville city council candidates have agreed to jointly sign a
petition directed at the current city council requesting that they delay the
hiring of a new city manager.
Council candidate Jerry T. Brownstead came
up with the plan and worked to contact the rest of the council candidates to
see if they agreed with signing the petition. Brownstead said he
plans to present the petition to the council during the time of
public comment at the regular September meeting on Thursday.
The city is currently accepting city manager applications until September 30 and with just over a month between that deadline and the November 8 election the current city council could easily hire a new city manager before the election. Councilman Pete Souza has put an item on this weeks agenda hoping for action to delay the hiring until after the two new council members replacing Souza and councilman Jesse Kerley take their seats on the council.
Seven of the candidates have signed the petition and one candidate, former mayor J. H. Graham declined to sign the petition. Brownstead said he had left a message for candidate Terri Manning who has now signed the petition as well.
Brownstead said he felt the joint effort shows that the candidates that are running are willing to
work together.
The petition says,
To the Crossville city council:
We, the undersigned candidates do
uniformly petition the Crossville city council council to refrain
from appointing the city manager until such time as the newly elected
council members take office. It is our belief that as two of us must
work in harmony with the council and city manager, we should all
emerge from this election in concert with our goal of unity.
The signatures of the six candidates
are below. Those signing include Mr. Brownstead who instituted the
petition, Charles Cooper, Jr., Rob Harrison, Jeannette
Parsons, Scot Shanks, and David Warner.
There is no change in the candidates
for city council. Thursday at noon was the deadline for any
candidate to drop out if they wanted to and no requests were made.
All 8 of the candidates will appear on the November 8 ballot for
Crossville city council and the two candidates who receive the most
votes will gain a spot on the council.
The final list of candidates are:
Jerry T. "J.J" Brownstead
Charles Cooper, Jr.
J. H. Graham, III
Robert E. "Rob" Harrison,
Terri L. Manning
Jeanette W. Parsons
Scot Shanks
David E. Warner
2) New Candidates for Crossville city manager position
Three additional candidates have submitted letters and resumes for
the Crossville city manager job currently being advertised.
New candidates include:
Terence Arrington of Greenville SC whose last job is county
administrator for Darlignton Co. South Carolina. Arrignton served in
that position from 1-2015 through 8-2016. Arrington has a Masters of
Public Administration and is working toward and MBA. He has
government experience since 2011 including deputy city administrator
of Salisbury MD from 1-2014 to 1-2015.
Allen May of Urbanville IA last held the position of city
administrator of Coal Valley Illinois. He started serving in that
position in 2014. Prior to that position, May has zoning and
planning experience back to 1974.
Bobby Goney of Crossville is a registered nurse that has
worked in intensive care for the last several years, curently in
Sparta and prior for Cumberland Medical Center. He holds an MBA in
healthcare administration. In addition, Goney has previous
experience in banking and accounting.
3) J. R. Blankenship Court appearance Monday on appeals
The appeal of two matters concerning J. R. Blankenship are scheduled
to be before circuit court Judge Jonathan Young. Blankenship is
represented by Nashville Attorney Joseph Johnston. The matter of the
$1500 fine placed against Blankenship over “unsigned fliers” is
under appeal along with an appeal of the issuance of a restraining
order to city judge Ivy Gardener.
With 8 candidates vying for 2 Crossville city council seats the race has already started.
Election day is November 8. One candidate has already started putting out signs. With non of the current incumbents seeking reelection the race appears to be wide open.
The future direction of the city of Crossville will be in the hands of voters.
The 8 candidates include: 1) Jerry T. "J.J" Brownstead 2) Charles Cooper, Jr. 3) J. H. Graham, former mayor and councilman 4) Robert E. "Rob" Harrison, 5) Terri L. Manning 6) Jeanette W. Parsons 7) Scot Shanks 8) David E. Warner, former city councilman who served from Jan 1985-Dec 1992
The deadline has passed for candidates to turn in nominating petitions to get their name on the ballot for the November 8 city election for two seats on the Crossville city council.
Candidates qualifying include:
1) Jerry T. "J.J" Brownstead 2) Charles Cooper, Jr. 3) J. H. Graham, former mayor and councilman 4) Robert E. "Rob" Harrison, 5) Terri L. Manning 6) Jeanette W. Parsons 7) Scot Shanks 8) David E. Warner, former city councilman who served from Jan 1985-Dec 1992
Neither of the council members who currently hold the seats are running, Councilman Pete Souza previously announced he would not be running and while councilman Jesse Kerley took out papers he did not turn them back in.
While most of the candidates have not held office previously, candidates J. H. Graham has served as both a council member and many years as mayor. He lost an election 2 years ago to current mayor James Mayberry. David Warner previously held a council seat from 1985 to 1992.
The candidates have a week to decide if they want to stay on the ballot and can withdraw by noon August 26 if they choose. Otherwise their name will appear on the ballot for November 8.
October 11 is the deadline to register to vote in the November election according to the Cumberland County election office.
Early voting opens on October 19 and continues through November 3.
Candidate who have qualified as of August 8, 2016 include:
1) J. H. Graham, former mayor and councilman 2) Robert E. "Rob" Harrison, 3) Terri L. Manning 4) Jeanette W. Parsons 5) Scot Shanks 6) David E. Warner, former city councilman who served from Jan 1985-Dec 1992 In addition, several candidates have taken out qualifying papers but have not yet turned them back in including a new name Charles Cooper. The deadline to return the petitions with at least 25 registered city voters signatures is August 18 at noon. 1) Jerry T. "JJ" Brownstead 2) Charles Cooper 2) Barry Field (Field actually lives outside of the city limits and appears to be ineligible to run.) 3) Jesse Kerley, currently holding one of the council seats up for election 4) Jack E. Miller, former Crossville city manager 6) Ronnie D. Wyatt, owner of Wyatt Construction
Once the August 18 deadline has passed, qualified candidates have until August 25 at noon to remove thier name from the ballot.
